JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



No. 81. —September, 1838. 



I. — Botanico- Agricultural account of the protected Sikh States. By 

 M. P. Edgeworth, Esq., C. S. Masuri. 



The extensive territory under the Ambala political agency comprises 

 the hill states of Sirmur, Kahlur, and a portion of the plains princi- 

 pally possessed by Sikh chiefs, bounded by the above states to the 

 north-east, the Sutlej to the north and north-west, the Jumna to the 

 east, and the Delhi territory and JBhatiana to the south. 



It is not my intention to treat of the hill Rajpoot principalities, as I 

 am only very partially acquainted with but one of them (SirmurJ ; but 

 solely of the "protected Sikh states" in the plains. 



This tract of country may be divided into three great divisions, 

 besides the narrow strip of Jchddir land adjoining the Jumna and 

 Sutlej according to their most abundant natural products, viz., the dakh 

 the babul and the phalahi. 



I. The first of these, or dakh tract, extends from the high bank 

 above the Jumna) which in most places adjoins the Shah Nahr to the 

 Linda river, a small stream not noted in the exceedingly inaccurate 

 maps* of this part of the country, which runs nearly parallel with the 

 Markhanda at a distance of two to five miles from it, and ultimately 

 unites with the Sarasvati a little below Thanesar. This tract of coun- 

 try is generally high and called hangar, which term however is more 

 universally applied to the southern extremity, and not commonly to the 



* 1 allude to the large maps published uuder the style of ' Trigonome- 

 trical survey,' though this part of the country has never been surveyed trigono- 

 metrically or otherwise ; to give an instance, Kotaha or Syyed ka garhi, is divided 

 into three places, viz. Kotaha or Syyed, and ka garhi II I at a considerable distance 

 one from the other. 

 5 B 



